(no subject)

[olivermoss]

Paul De Meo, co-creator of The Sentinel, has passed.

I miss the days of Sentinel fandom, even though I never managed to be part of it. I think the show was over by the time I came across it.

Comments

[highlander_ii]

I was peripherally in Sentinel fandom. Or came in near-ish the end or something. I do know the fans are responsible for bringing the show back for the last season b/c they all lost their shit about the end of s3 or something (i'm fuzzy on the details, though i agree w/ the rage).

I'd love to be able to watch more than s1 - b/c the series is prohibitively expensive at the moment. I mean - i do have the remainder of the series on old school vhs tapes where i taped 'em off the TV - but ugh.... i think they'll look awful on my HD tv.... /o\ (1st world fan problems)

[olivermoss]

I didn't have any access to the shows for most of my life. I picked up the box set of all seasons when it finally came out. I get into it via fanfic and discussions. I briefly had terrible VHS copies.

I feel like there needs to be project on the show's impact on fandom and fanfic at some point.

[highlander_ii]

This fanlore article has a pretty good start on general fan history from the show: https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Sentinel

there's probably plenty more than can be added.

I watched the show when it was on UPN and then, I think it ran on SciFi in syndication for a long time.

there were yahoogroups for Burgi and the show... i think there are still bits and bobs of old discussions at https://www.sffchronicles.com/forum/sentinel/ - tho, looking, it's kinda dry and not a lot of discussion happened after a while... (that section was originally part of a forum called ascifi.com that was merged into sffchronicles)

[olivermoss]

Yeah, fanlore exists but somehow Sentinel gets overlooked when people talk classic fandoms, or ones that had impact. Just like the show was a thing you knew about or didn't, the fandom seems somewhat forgotten.

I lived in a weird coverage gap for UPN type shows. No Sentintel, no Highlander, no Xena.

I was on mailing lists back in the day. I even gave valuable LJ codes to some fanficcers. But yeah, it's just a me thing. I never manage to be part of the crew.

[highlander_ii]

Obviously Highlander was a thing for me. XD And I hit several pretty 'obscure' shows - Sentinel, 7 Days.... probably others i can't think of right off.

I watched weird stuff too - American Gothic, rolled back around to Forever Knight long after it was over b/c a friend was into it, Brimstone, etc.

But, yeah, Sentinel gets overlooked, despite it being, i think, sort of the originator of the kind of 'soul bond' type fic stuff, iirc. (wasn't my cup of tea, but it was prevalent).

[olivermoss]

People write sentinel/guide fic these days not knowing that it's from anything. I think soul bonds predate it a bit, but a lot of forms and tropes came out of Sentinel. It was somehow massive and hidden at the same time.

[highlander_ii]

Yep.

It had, at least, 2 virtual series - regular & slash - and lord knows how many fic archives and other websites.

[klangley56]

A sad and unexpected passing, to be sure.

The Sentinel didn't have a greater impact on the larger world (or fandom, for that matter), I think because it was on a small netlet, UPN.

Which makes it even more remarkable that it developed such an active fandom--multiple email discussion lists, bunches of fanzines, lots of 'net fiction, some conventions and other fan gatherings, etc.

And there still is plenty of that out there so, along with the DVD sets, it's never too late to get into the fandom. :-)